Cross-Border Cooperation on WPS & Maritime Environmental Crimes Workshop

About the Workshop

The Coral Triangle is an area of outstanding marine biodiversity, formed between Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and Papua New Guinea. This region contains more than 550 unique species of coral and thousands of species of reef fish, many of which are endemic to the area.  It serves as breeding ground for cetaceans and other marine mega-fauna. The Coral Triangle provides food security to over 130 million people living in and around the region.

Maritime activities such as Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, wildlife trafficking, pollution, and other crimes threaten the region’s human and environmental security.

Maritime insecurities are rooted in gender disparities. Women are intimately involved in the maritime environment, but their contributions to its health and security are often overlooked.

Building the capacity of local law enforcement agencies to identify and tackle maritime environmental crimes is critical to the region’s security. By incorporating WPS principles, this event seeks to highlight the importance of women in the maritime environment and the role it plays in the advancing women’s economic and social empowerment.

This Workshop Series, spanning two days of virtual sessions, as well as two days of hybrid virtual/in-person sessions, will explore common environmental crimes in the region and their gendered impacts. Over the course of the events, we will cover questions such as: What are environmental crimes? What do they look like in the region? Who is involved? What are their gendered impacts? And how do we incorporate WPS principles into cross-border monitoring and response of maritime environmental crimes?

Participants: Defense force personnel and Civil Society Organization representatives from Indonesia, Timor-Leste, and Papua New Guinea

Dates / Locations: 

• Virtual events: February 6-7, 2024 (2 half days) via Zoom

Purpose: This event series seeks to highlight the importance of women in the maritime environment and the role it plays in advancing women’s economic and social empowerment. The Workshop Series will build the capacity of partner maritime law enforcement agencies to identify and tackle maritime environmental crimes to ensure the region’s security by incorporating WPS principles.

This project also aims to research maritime environmental crimes in the Coral Triangle, their gendered impacts, and the collective impacts on regional security. Working with regional environmental organizations, Pacific Forum will research and create a deliverable report. This will be disseminated among participants with the goal of integrating the findings into their home defense force branches.

Virtual meeting (Zoom) details will be shared with registered participants shortly before the first virtual sessions.